Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to wire-stripping tools and particularly to wire-stripping tools having jaws to strip two or more wires of identical size simultaneously.
2. Description of Related Art
Wire-stripping tools have been in use since the use of insulation. One of the most popular tools uses a pivoting handle to operate a pair of jaws. The jaws have a wire cutter and a series of cutters designed to fit around a specific size wire. The cutter clamps through the insulation around the wire, but does not cut the wire itself. Referring now to FIG. 1, a typical prior art wire stripper 100 is shown. This tool has a cutter head 101, discussed below, and a pair of handles 102 that are connected by a pivot assembly 103 as shown. The device is used by opening and closing the handles 102 to activate the cutter head 101.
FIG. 2 shows the cutter head 101. The head has a pair of jaws 104. At the top of the jaws is a crimper or pliers jaw 105. Below that, is a number of cutting jaws for stripping wire 106-110. These jaws are used to strip the insulation off wires. Each jaw is sized for a different wire gauge. These gauges are marked on the cutter for convenience. As shown, they range from 18 gauge to 10 gauge.
At the bottom of the cutter head are two holes 120. These holes can be used for bending wires. Typically, when making up an electrical device, the wires are wrapped around a connecting screw. These holes allow a worker to quickly form the bend in the wire to fit around the screw.
These tools have proved to be very useful for electrical work. They have only one major flaw-they are limited to bending or stripping one wire of the same gauge at a time. As electrical circuits became standardized, metallic sheathed cable and nonmetallic sheathed cables were developed. The most common of these cables has a pair of insulated wires and a bare ground wire. Once the outer sheath has been removed, the insulated wires must be stripped for use. As mentioned above, the stripping tools allow the user to strip only one of these wires at a time. This increases the time spent on wire preparation. It also increases the likelihood of injuries due to repetitive stress. Today, telephone cables, coax cables and other wiring configurations are used for a multitude of purposes. These cables, and the wires contained in them, must be stripped before installation and use.
The instant invention overcomes these limitations. It is a wire-stripping tool that has a pair or more of cutters sized for one gauge of wire. For example, instead of be able to strip 18, 16, 14, 12, and 10 gauges of wire, the instant invention has cutters that strip 18, 12, 12, and 10 gauges of wire. With this tool, a user can place two or more wires of the same gauge from a cable into the cutters and strip them at the same time. Moreover, the tool has additional bending holes. This allows the user to place more than one wire through the holes for bending at the same time. In this way, the labor required to prepare wires can be cut down significantly. In one embodiment, the holes are replaced with slots to allow a number of smaller gauge wires to be bent at a time. Also, designs that incorporate cutters for specific types of cables are included. For example, one embodiment is a stripper that can strip non-metallic sheathed cable and strip two wires of the same gauge. Another embodiment has strippers for telephone cables with cutters for stripping fine 22 gauge wires. A stripper is also disclosed for stripping coax cable and its internal wire.